


The Heart's Blood

by ValmureEld



Series: Team Succeed or Die Trying [6]
Category: Castlevania (Cartoon), 悪魔城ドラキュラ | Castlevania Series
Genre: Angst, Banter, Blood, Blood Drinking, Consensual Blood Drinking, F/M, Family, Gen, Healing, Heartbeats, Hearts, Injury, Light Romance, Near Death Experiences, Oh gods where do I start, Pseudoscience, Self Sacrifice, Self-Indulgent, Team as Family, Whump, Worry, everything goes wrong and there's feelings, light Trevor/Sypha, unreal how self indulgent this is guys, vampire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-30 02:57:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12099213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ValmureEld/pseuds/ValmureEld
Summary: Months into their journey together, they've already been through so much. What's nearly dying for each other to add to that? Alucard takes blades meant for Trevor, and is near fatally wounded in the process. Patching up a half vampire is much more complicated than one would hope, and may require Trevor's own life in the process.





	The Heart's Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so that thing about me not knowing when to quit? Totally applies here. Disclaimers first: 
> 
> I write purely on Netflix cannon, the little smidge from the Wiki about Trevor and Sypha's later life, and my own ridiculous pit of head cannons. This fic relies heavily on two of those--one, that Alucard actually does have some human traits like needing to breathe at least when injured. Two, that Trevor has a harmless heart arrhythmia.
> 
> Moving on. 
> 
> This is the single most self indulgent thing I've ever written in my life when it comes to fanfiction. But someone posted a gorgeous piece of artwork on tumblr of a vampire taking a rain of swords for the girl huddled beneath him and my brain just took that idea and skipped off into the sunset. 
> 
> Be warned that this fic completely ignores any lack of medical understanding that actually existed in that time period in favor of writing feels and crazy scenarios. This is also set months after they started traveling and months after my previous fics, so their relationships have changed a lot. 
> 
> Okay I'll stop talking now.

When Sypha told an ungrateful thug in a worn bar on a winter night that Trevor had nearly died a dozen times since their quest began, she wished she was kidding. After nights of fear, and blood, and waiting for him to take another breath _just please don't stop breathing please, Trevor. I'm begging you_....she didn't want to face what his death would actually do to her. He wasn't afraid of dying. She wasn't either. But afraid of _him_ dying? She was frozen.

Alucard didn't call it fear. He didn't have a name for it. But long after the bar, when they'd already been through seven layers of hell together, the time came when Trevor nearly died to save Alucard himself and it would be branded on his spirit for the rest of his existence.

“Oh, please tell me your father was really excited about metaphor?”

Alucard pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “No. Unfortunately he has no such finesse. He's always been painfully direct.”

“Lovely,” Trevor drawled, crossing his arms and tilting his head as he looked up at the mural warning them of their next possible encounters. Skeletons. Poison. Swords. Swords would be the most appealing except-- “So what you're telling me is that actual, metal daggers the length of my arm will be plunging from on high to impale us like rain.”

“Yes.”

Sypha's lips were pursed, something she did unconsciously when she was concentrating. She tapped her fingers against her chin, and both men looked at her, hoping for a solution. They'd already concluded that skeletons and poison were no good. The poison was too intense for anyone to get through besides Alucard, and the skeletons had a mind of their own. They killed, and what they killed they recruited. Frankly their passage was getting downright crowded, and killing _them_ seemed impossible. Even with Trevor's whip.

“Never thought overpopulation would be an issue for an army of skeletons but here we are. The economic disaster that is this country has reached as far as the Tepes estate,” Trevor had joked. Sypha didn't find it nearly as funny as he or Alucard did.

“I could create a shield of ice, but I would have to escort each of you one at a time.”

Alucard shook his head. “It's too dangerous. You would be risking yourself four times to cross with us both, and we cannot afford to compound our chances of losing someone.”

“Well, what do you suggest?” Trevor asked. “Because so far Sypha's the only one with any idea at all besides 'give up'.”

“We could step with care and avoid tripping the trap at all,” he said, though his eyes said he didn't quite believe that was viable.

“If we want to go that route, Trevor is not permitted to go first,” Sypha said dryly.

“You're still angry about that stone in the catacombs but if I hadn't stepped on it he never would have woken up and you'd still be shuffling around looking for your messiah.”

“That is _not_ the point, Belmont! You claimed to my face that it wasn't your fault while your foot was still on the trigger!”

“Why does that matter??”

“It doesn't, not in the grand scope, but I like to remind you that you're an impulsive liar sometimes.”

“Oh thank you, like I need reminding of literally anything about my personality. And lying, by the way, is a matter of perspective.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “No it isn't.”

Alucard glanced over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow and resting his hand on the door leading to the sword passage. “If you are quite through, we can attempt to get this over with?”

It was slow going. Alucard, with his sensitive eyes and hearing went first even though he had never seen this part of the castle. Sypha was very close behind and Trevor went last, whip in hand and ready should there be some other catch besides not tripping the hundreds of daggers hanging precariously like a cloud of sleepy bats over their heads.

“So far so good,” Trevor muttered, edging carefully around the dusty remains of someone far less light-footed. “Please tell me we're near the end?”

“Patience, Belmont,” Alucard said, calculating the next tile that might be safe. “We'll get there.”

“You know, two of us can float. Can't one of you just, I don't know, carry me?”

“Using magic in a room where the daggers are half suspended mechanically and half by spells is a very bad idea,” Sypha reasoned.

“Alright, then Alucard floats one of us across and comes back for the other.”

“No. My father turned this castle against me as soundly as he did any intruder. The only way to get through safely is to follow the rules and solve the pattern.”

“Ugh. Fine.”

A painstaking forty five minutes later and they were through. Alucard finally stood on unmarked stone near a grand door, and his body actually visibly relaxed. “There. Patience pays as soundly as a fight in many instances. Sypha,” he held his hand out for her to grab for balance as she hopped over the last trigger stone.

Just as she settled and Alucard turned to offer Trevor the same, something caught the edge of his hearing. Alucard looked up, his eyes widening as a gargoyle-like rock demon went darting back into an alcove. A second later there was a shiver in the air, and a tingling, and then the blades fell. Alucard did the only thing he could. He rushed back, throwing Trevor into a wall and covering him. The clattering of blades lasted only a few seconds, but when the ringing stopped and the dust began to settle Trevor raised a hand vibrating with adrenaline and brushed it against the red blooming on his tunic. He held his fingers up in bewilderment for a moment of uncomprehending shock.

Then he looked up.

Alucard was still braced with his hands on either side of Trevor's head, his body shielding Trevor's completely. Three long, silver blades were protruding from his torso, the blood dripping down them landing on Trevor's face and hands. Alucard's gold eyes were staring in shock and his breathing shuddered, a trickle of blood drooling from his lip. Worry lanced through Trevor and then panic followed as his training quickly placed the sword piercing Alucard's chest. He reached out slowly, resting his palm right next to the flat of the blade and praying he was wrong.

“Alucard?” he said, his voice betraying his worry. He straightened up and Alucard stepped back, letting him away from the wall as he slowly looked down at his bleeding chest.

“It seems, my plan...” he coughed and Trevor stepped forward to catch him as Alucard's knees buckled.

“Sypha, quick, you have to pull the swords out!” he said, struggling to keep Alucard upright to avoid causing any more damage.

Sypha was white, working quickly to obey though she looked like she may be ill doing it. The sword through his lung and the one in his stomach elicited nothing more than a flutter of his eyelids and a pained groan, and the wounds quickly closed. Sypha placed her hands on the hilt of the last sword, but she hesitated, meeting Trevor's eyes.

“You have to do it. Just, slowly. It's very near his heart,” Trevor warned. “If you move it at all other than straight out--” he shook his head. She didn't want him to finish.

“I'm sorry,” she whispered, feeling sick and breathless as she pulled. Alucard's mouth opened in a strangled cry, and when the sword was finally gone he collapsed against Trevor completely. Blood smeared down Trevor's tunic and he worked quickly to move the ailing dhampir to solid ground.

The wound in Alucard's chest was not healing. It bled terribly, and his breathing rasped, his throat working as he swallowed weakly. His eyes were screwed shut with pain and he gripped Sypha's arm. Her brow twisted and she covered his hand with her own. He didn't seem fully aware of what he was doing.

Trevor was busy ripping Alucard's shirt apart so he could get at the wound, but the reveal only dashed his hope further. He swore under his breath, his adrenaline rushing as he scrambled for what to do.

“It definitely damaged his heart,” he said thickly, framing the wound between his thumb and first finger, his palm resting against Alucard's heaving breastbone. “That's why he's not healing.”

“How—how is he still alive?”

“I said damaged, not staked,” he clarified, gesturing to the slit of dark blood that looked so wrong against Alucard's porcelain skin. It gaped as he drew a full breath and grimaced, his fangs showing as he clenched his teeth and breathed out again. “His heart is here,” Trevor said, drawing a line around its edge without daring to actually touch for fear of causing more pain. “The blade nicked it. Just barely, but enough.”

Sypha looked even sicker. “Did I--”

Trevor shook his head. “No. You removed it cleanly. It cut him going in.”

“What can we do?” she asked, looking as lost as he felt. “We have no tools.”

“The one thing humans and vampires have in common is that we need our hearts intact to survive. A normal vampire would have been destroyed by even a nick of damage. It is the human side of him that is keeping him alive. For the moment,” he said, wading through his memories of every vampire legend and fact that he knew. There had to be something.

“If it is the vampire side that is dying, it is the vampire side that we must heal,” Sypha reasoned, already pulling at her collar. “He can take my blood first, you fed him last.”

Trevor nodded, shifting to pull Alucard carefully up so he was laying in his lap, resting against his chest so he could both help and hold him back depending on what was needed. Alucard was far from fully aware, his eyes barely slits of gold that glinted in the lamplight as they twitched around unconsciously searching for relief.

“Not the throat, not for a feeding like this. He's going to be operating on instinct, he won't let you go easily. If you offer your throat he will either drain you or tear the artery when I try to pull him away. Offer your wrist, and drool it into his mouth so he cannot bite.”

Sypha nodded, accepting one of Trevor's throwing knives and using it to draw some blood. She waited until Trevor had securely braced his arm across the top of Alucard's chest and adjusted his head before carefully dripping some of her blood into Alucard's parted lips. The reaction was almost immediate. He jerked in Trevor's grasp, but the hunter held him tight and only Alucard's tongue could dart out to lap up the blood spotting on his lips. Sypha gave him as much as she dared and he drank, but she had to pull away and wrap her wrist far before he showed any real improvement. He didn't seem so disoriented and his breathing was a little easier, but the wound had gotten no better.

“It isn't working,” she said softly, distress lining her face. Trevor squeezed his eyes shut and cursed, clenching his fist against Alucard's collarbone. It was a bad sign, even if he was relieved, that he hadn't had to struggle much to hold Alucard down.

“I was afraid it wouldn't,” Trevor admitted, shifting out from behind Alucard and very gently laying him back to rest against the stone again. Trevor removed the red tail from his outfit and balled it up, slipping it beneath the golden head to try and make him more comfortable. Sypha finished bandaging her wrist and knelt next to Alucard opposite Trevor, resting her hand on his arm.

“Is this, is this really it then?” she asked, her voice starting to thicken with tears that hadn't quite formed. “We just wait for him to die?”

“I don't know what else to do for him, short of a myth,” he said quietly, resting his hand on Alucard's shoulder.

“What myth?” she asked, eyes brightening. “Whatever it is, it is worth trying! Why didn't you say something sooner?”

“Because it requires an injured vampire to eat a freshly stopped human heart. Supposedly the only thing that will heal a vampire's damaged heart is to drink the blood directly from someone else's. Vampires sustain their half life through sipping the life energy from others. The only way to prevent actual death is to sacrifice someone completely and consume the blood still in the chambers. Possibly the meat, too. It remains a myth because no documented vampire was coherent enough or lasted long enough after being staked to actually attempt it.”

Sypha deflated, dropping her head and sitting back on her heels. “Oh.”

Trevor swallowed, watching Alucard's breathing get worse and the pool of blood get larger, unwilling to just give up. It wasn't in him to just quit, not while there was still a chance. As long as Alucard was fighting, Trevor hated the prospect of giving up on him. He cast around, gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut before making his decision.

“But he isn't a vampire, is he?” he said, undoing the buckles on his harness and quickly working at the ties on his tunic. “He's only half. Maybe he doesn't need the full cure. Maybe I can keep my heart, and he can have some of its blood.”

Sypha's brow twisted in confusion, her eyes bright with tears. “I don't understand, you said a stopped heart--”

“Yes, but it's a shot in the dark either way and if we don't save Alucard our quest is over and we'll both die before we ever get out.” He set his weapons aside and pulled his tunic apart, feeling around his own chest with his fingers as he talked, counting ribs and the spaces between them as he calculated the best spot. “If we save him, he still has a chance against his father, which is more than we can say on our own.”

The speaker shook her head, her posture laced with unease. “Trevor, you said a _stopped_ heart,” she repeated. “What do you expect me to do? Kill you and and carve your heart from your body so he can eat it?” she tried to make light of the concept but the image of it was too horrifying.

“No,” Trevor said, fishing in his belt for a moment until he found the long, thin needle of a burnished lockpick. “I expect you to cheat.” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, focusing inward for a moment with his hand on his chest. His lips moved in a silent count and he traced his thumb down his sternum, then over a little to the left until his expression shifted and he seemed satisfied. He opened his eyes and beckoned with a jerk of his head. “Come over here, he hasn't got much time.”

“No--” Sypha exclaimed, getting up and stepping over Alucard so she could settle on her knees in front of Trevor in a pile of indignation. She snatched the lockpick out of his hand, and he let her but he kept his thumb and the heel of his hand in place like he didn't want to lose the spot. “I refuse to let you kill yourself when we don't even know this will work.”

“Sypha,” Trevor said seriously, gripping her wrist with his free hand. “We cannot go forward without him. I cannot live the rest of my life knowing I had the chance to fix this and I didn't. I'm not afraid. I'm not asking you to kill me, but if I do die in this attempt then I died doing exactly what I've always wanted and always been meant to—protecting the people I swore to protect. Please, at least let me tell you my idea?”

She was flushed with anger and fear and the tears still stood in her eyes, but she clenched her jaw and stared him down before finally nodding.

“My heart doesn't beat right, remember? You told me once while you were listening to it that it stopped, and you were more or less right. We can use that. I can't predict a skipped beat, but we may be able to induce one. Or several. You hit me in exactly the right spot, my heart will stumble and technically it will have stopped.”

He gripped her wrist, keeping his voice level because he could already see her mentally backpedaling and Alucard did not have enough time left for him to waste it convincing her. “Listen, it should correct itself in a few seconds but that buys you time to shove the needle between my ribs and into my heart, taking blood from its center. You pull it right back out, my heart recovers, and because it was not beating wen you pierced it the muscle will be intact enough to heal. We let Alucard drink that drop, and then we see if we can cheat even a myth.”

Sypha was shaking her head even before Trevor had a chance to finish. “I can't do something like that, you can't ask me to do something like that!!” she exclaimed, tears now striking down in a mixture of anger and disbelief.

“How can you ask me to do something like that? Stop your heart? Pierce it I--” she choked on her words, suddenly pressing a hand against his chest, dislodging his own. He looked at her steadily, and she couldn't return that look because she didn't want to see the conviction or the peace in his eyes when she was in such turmoil. The mere thought had her pulse racing, but his, warm and close against her palm, was rock steady.

“Sypha,” he said gently, brushing a rough finger under her chin so she looked up. “Please. Let me try? Help me save him. My life is not worth the trade of the thousands that will die without him.”

She swallowed, expression crumpling at last. Her fingers clenched against his chest and she sobbed, leaning her head into his shoulder. His other arm rest around her back, hugging her to him with a strength she dreaded losing.

After a few trembling moments she picked her head up, and before Trevor could realize what she intended her lips were pressed against his in such a crush of feeling that he didn't know what to make of it. Her eyes were closed, her mouth salty from her tears, but he leaned into the kiss, returning it and tilting his head just enough to deepen it before she pulled away. She wouldn't look at him, quickly dashing away her tears with the edge of her robe before taking a steadying breath.

“Alright, show me where,” she said at last, finally looking at him. “And so help me, Belmont, if you die I will turn to necromancy and bind your spirit to mine as a slave.”

He huffed a watery laugh, his smile a little crooked. “I believe you. Now give me your hand.”

She obliged and he placed it against his chest, guiding her to the exact places she'd need to go as he explained. “My heart is exactly here,” he said, pressing down for emphasis. “You can feel it beating, yes?”

She nodded.

“Now, if you hit here, against my sternum you'll bruise your fist and it's not likely this will work. You have to go just to the left a bit, here,” he said, sliding her hand over and pressing again. “You hit me once, good and hard just there, it will stun my heart out of rhythm. Induce a few of those skips that have you so worried. Whatever you do though, you have to mean it. You can't worry about hurting me or doing more damage. You have to hit hard and you have to hit exactly there. Understand? Anything else and the organ is too well protected.”

She swallowed thickly, but she nodded again. “I understand.”

“Good. Now, you'll know if it worked because I will close my eyes. Might be involuntary, but I'll be able to feel it so if it's not involuntary I'll do it anyway. As soon as my eyes are shut you take this needle, and you go just here.” He moved her fingers up and over, straightening up so his ribcage flared open a little wider and her fingers settled into the gap. “Between these ribs, only an inch or so below is the largest chamber. Pierce me there, you shouldn't have trouble getting through the wall of the heart and you should be far enough away from the valves that you don't risk damaging them. You use all your strength so it's a clean stab and you go right in. Make sure you go deep enough to actually get what we need. Once you're certain, draw the needle back out and give the drop straight to Alucard. If I revive, I'll revive on my own. Got all that?”

Sypha nodded, closing her hand on the lock pick so she could stop it shaking. He let her hand go and squeezed her forearm once, his gaze unafraid. “You can do this.”

“If you say so,” she said uncertainly, watching with a lump in her throat as Trevor lay down next to Alucard and got comfortable, huffing one breath before he nodded. Alucard had stopped moving save for the smallest breaths, and Sypha knew it was now or not at “Remember. Mean it. Think off all the times I've pissed you off, might help.”

She gave him a half-hearted snort and braced her hand against his shoulder. “Ready?”

“Hurry.”

She closed her fist, and before her brain could catch up with what she was doing she struck him. The effect was immediate and frightening. He grunted, his eyes going wide right before his breath hitched and they closed. Placing her fingers either side of the puncture site, Sypha raised the needle and brought it down as hard as she dared, feeling it slide through and pierce the tough membranes protecting and sealing his chest wall. She couldn't stop the fresh tears that struck hot down her face but her hand was steady as she gauged the depth and then pulled the needle back out. It was slick with blood that seemed almost black in the lamplight and she quickly turned, sliding the needle along Alucard's bottom lip.

For a breathless moment nothing happened. Alucard had stopped gasping, his eyes were closed and he was still. Then, just when she was read to despair, his lips closed and there was faint movement as he smoothed his tongue along them. His Adam's apple bobbed and he sighed, his head falling to one side with a finality that turned her cold. She watched him, wide eyed and not daring to breathe, begging anyone that would listen that Alucard heal, that he would wake and that Trevor would follow.

She was nearly dizzy with relief and astonishment when Alucard suddenly gasped, his eyes flying open as the wound on his chest began pulling itself closed.

“Oh thank you, thank you,” she breathed, cradling Alucard's head and pressing a kiss to his forehead before she could stop herself. Alucard sat up, coughing weakly and bringing a hand up to cover the pink skin already dulling into nothing more than a very light scar.

“How did you--” he looked over at Trevor, his eyes widening as they fell on his still body. Blood soaked Trevor's tunic and it was open. Laying there motionless and disarmed, his tunic untied and his eyes closed, he looked far too much like a lamb that had been sacrificed.

“Belmont, Trevor...no,” Alucard breathed, his expression twisting with distress as he got up and bent over Trevor, cradling his head in one hand and resting the other against Trevor's quivering heart. Sypha watched, her hands fisted in her robes.

“Can you—is he--” she was reaching her breaking point. Speaking was getting difficult, and she couldn't help the bitterness at that kind of irony. “He's gone, isn't he?”

“No,” Alucard said sharply, gritting his teeth as the light in his eyes turned to anger. “He doesn't get out of the fight that easily. There's life in him yet, I only need wake it.”

And with that, he brought his fist down on Trevor's sternum. _Hard_.

Trevor jolted, his eyes flying open and his throat catching as he made an awful choking noise. He coughed, gasped, his body in turmoil trying to recover the oxygen it had been denied. Alucard steadied him, holding him so he wouldn't smack his head against the stone. It was a miserable return, but Trevor got his breathing back to a regular rhythm and he relaxed in Alucard's grip, his eyes falling closed in weariness.

“That was...not fun,” he panted. Alucard's hand rose and fell with his heaving chest. The dhampir refused to take it away until he was satisfied that Trevor's heart remembered its proper cadence.

“That was absolutely idiotic.You used the myth of the Heart's Blood, didn't you?” the vampire said angrily. “What made you throw your life away after so obscure a chance?”

Trevor cracked open one eye, and though he didn't acknowledge Sypha grabbing his hand he did squeeze it to assure her. “Are you serious? And don't you mean what made me _nearly_ \--”

“You were dead, Belmont. Your heart was barely quivering, you're lucky it remembered its purpose.”

“Oh there was never any worry of that,” he joked wearily. “Belmonts are nothing if not steadfast at heart. We never forget what we're made of or what we're for.”

“Is he, alright?” Sypha asked, looking to Alucard for assurance.

“Against his best efforts, yes. I believe he is.”

“Good.” _Crack_.

“OW, SYPHA!” Trevor held his smarting cheek, staring at her in bewilderment. “Is that how you greet me freshly back from heaven?”

“Oh you were most certainly not in heaven, Trevor Belmont. Not with what you just put me through.”

“So you're telling me you didn't only kiss me just a bit ago because you thought I was going to die?”

Alucard's eyebrows shot up.

“I haven't decided. I'm still too angry with you.”

“Lovely. Let me know when you work that out, will you?” he asked, rubbing at his jaw and cracking it back and forth once before he gingerly tried to sit up. Alucard helped him, his hands as gentle as if he thought Trevor would shatter apart. Trevor looked at the dhampir, but he wouldn't meet his eyes.

“Alucard.”

No answer. He was too busy lacing up Trevor's tunic, gathering his weapons back up.

“Alucard.”

Alucard pressed his lips together, pointedly focusing on placing Trevor's weapons belts back across his shoulders, as though their absence was suddenly too wrong to be tolerated.

“ _Adrian_.”

That froze him. His hands stilled on the buckles, and he finally looked up.

“Don't you dare blame this on yourself. I saved you, you saved me. We're even.”

“You never would have been in that position if I--”

“No, I wouldn't have because I'd be skewered by three swords and dead already. So we're good, yes?”

Alucard closed his mouth and ducked his head, his voice barely audible.

“Thank you.”

“We're probably going to die together in the end anyway,” Trevor said lightly, resting a hand on Alucard's shoulder. “I think, like it or not that makes us some kind of really bizarre family. And what's the point, if you're not willing to die for family?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Trevor knows a lot because he's been trained to hunt and heal depending on his target. Adrian knows a lot because his mother was Lisa. Everything else is because I wanted to write this so I stretched things because it's fanfic and I can.


End file.
